WASHINGTON — With rare bipartisan momentum, the House pushed ahead Friday on a foreign aid package of $95 billion for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and humanitarian support as a coalition of lawmakers helped it clear a procedural hurdle to reach final votes this weekend. Friday's vote produced a seldom-seen outcome in the typically hyper-partisan House, with Democrats helping Republican Speaker Mike Johnson's plan advance 316-94. Final House approval could come this weekend, when the package would be sent to the Senate.
It was a victory for the strategy Speaker Mike Johnson set in motion this week after he agonized for two months over the legislation. Still, Johnson has had to spend the past 24 hours making the rounds on conservative media working to salvage support for the wartime funding, particularly for Ukraine as it faces a critical moment battling Russia, but also for his own job as the restless right flank threatens to oust him over the effort.
“There's a lot of misinformation about what we're doing here and why,” Johnson told the conservative host of The Mark Levin Show.
“Ukrainians desperately need lethal aid right now. … We cannot allow Vladimir Putin to roll through another country and take it,” he said about the Russian president's invasion of Ukraine. “These are very serious matters with global implications.”
After months of delay, the House worked slowly but deliberately once Johnson made up his mind this…
